Challenges of a Life at Anchor?

[boatman61]

Okay... your young, your fit and your not a 'Society Addict'... great points in your favour
I've lived on the hook in Poole Harbour, UK.. summers and winters in 20-23 footers... the summers were magic.. swans swimming over to visit, beautiful sunsets and rowing to and from the boat was a joy..
Winters were tougher.. one year it was so cold the harbour iced over and heading out to work at 6am for a 7am start was a grind.. the hardest bit was keeping the boat warm and the condensation down..
Food was no problem... easy enough to knock up meals with a 2 burner and grill stove.. shop every 2nd or 3rd day and buy fresh and a fridge is not needed.. it becomes your social life chatting with the checkout staff.. Laundromats are the best way to meet new folk in your age bracket.. students and other 'line walkers'..
Want to make your own mooring.. easy peasey.. get hold of 4 large old car tyres and some heavy chain and make 4 10ft lengths... plastic bag the bottoms of the tyres then quarter fill with a concrete gravel mix.. coil the chain in each while still wet and push a length of wood through the last link and support it across the tyre so it stands proud.. fill with the concrete mix till just below the supported link... these serve as your N,S,E,W weights... you now need 4 more lengths of 15ft and 5 shackles plus one swivel to link them up and a length of lighter chain with appropriate shackle for the mooring bouy to which you attach your boat... being 20-27ft you can lay the mooring in 3metres at low tide... make sure your chain is at least 10ft longer than maximum high water... you do not want straight up and down.
Water you jerry jug in 25 litre jugs and for showers a solar bag in the cockpit...

[Stu Jackson]

steph, A lot of these comments are from folks who may know little about our specific sailing area (you mentioned SF and Santa Cruz). While there was great merit in sharing anchoring experiences, those from back east have completely different weather than we do here. Some may say it's worse, because of the possibility of daily evening thunderstorms and regular weather fronts moving through, compared to our generally benign weather seasons.

But I think you may be overestimating our weather. I've lived here since 1978 and for most of those years I've boated, regularly, rarely less than weekly, anchoring all over the Bay and the Delta.

Santa Cruz is a markedly open roadsted. Try a late spring or summer high wind afternoon that cranks the swells around the corner and things can get uncomfortable pretty quickly and for long terms.

San Francisco: Has only a few reasonable anchorages. Richardson Bay (Sausalito) HONKS in summer afternoon winds, big time. Watch the fog come in over the ridge sometime. And, in winter, with the south winds that come with our winter weather fronts, it is entirely a lee shore with a three to four mile fetch across the entirety of San Fransisco Bay. Clipper Cove has been eliminated as a long term anchorage. The estuary has a few rotten derelicts that used to be in Clipper Cove.

The Delta is far from SF (a good day or two sail east), but has many more places where one could drop the hook long time more safely, but as far as I hear (from Latitude 38 and other sources) the "locals" don't like anchor-outs much more than Floridians do.

Even the many marinas here have poor access to food supplies.

So, in addition to your "pluckiness" and the "issues raised by the contributors to this thread, you may want to seriously consider your options based on the reality of the weather and anchoring situations in the two places you mentioned.

If, OTOH, you were planning on moving regularly, this is a great place to sail and anchor. Harder to stay in one place through all the seasons.

Two excellent references:

Sailing the Bay by Kimball Livingston

Weather & Fog of the Bay Region by Harold Gilliam

Good luck, your boat, your choice.

[Kettlewell]

Sounds like you should listen to Stu's local knowledge. I love living aboard at anchor, but I wouldn't stay for long in a harbor that wasn't sheltered and comfortable.

[fisherman.ben]

wow, with the amount of bickering i've just read on this post i'm kinda suprised i made it through.
i say go for it, just go for it on a boat that is at least 26 feet. i spend my summers on a 30ft and love it. have taken a year off and gone for a ride 3 times, and loved that too. the dingy problem is only a problem if you make it one, (most places have dingy docks, showers,and vessel services around them) and if you go to good spots, you only have to lock your dingy with a bike lock.
the car may be a problem, (it was for me, so i got a moped) you can take it on the dingy, put it on the stern when you sail, and it gets through traffic way better. just remember the bike lock idea, (had my vespa "borrowed" by a guy that was on the hook too, really pissed me off.)
as for the anti-social thing, i have never had a problem making friends, only a problem keeping in touch with them. most marinas have friendly people all over them, but as with anywhere, there are ********, and sometimes they're the ones who can decide if you have to go. with that in mind, use bribes, (i've found that lobsters and scallops work awesome.) just make sure you give them out before someone says something, and give them out often.
now what ever you do, make sure you hire a pump out boat at least once a week. (even if you don't use your head) make sure its at a time that the people around you see it. (it goes a long way if you plan to stay for a while) and if you see trash on the beach, (or some lazy person left a bunch of crap on a picnic table) pick it up. nobody likes a slob.
don't get stumbling drunk, nobody will put up with that for long. then you can deal with the cops, and who wants to see them?
so in a nutshell, be a good person and good things will happen.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by fisherman.ben

(most places have dingy docks, showers,and vessel services around them)

'ceptin' that's simply NOT the case here, where the OP said he wants to try this out.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Group9

I lost one that way, too. Better these days to mark it with GPS than to buoy it off and think it will be there when you come back.

Since I sail my boat by myself fairly often I have come up with a way to retrieve it without a second person -- I use snatch blocks to lead the rode back to the cockpit, and drive up on it slowly, pulling it into the cockpit. I've tested it -- it works. Too bad I didn't use it last time and tried to muscle it up -- that was just dumb.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by fisherman.ben

wow, with the amount of bickering i've just read on this post i'm kinda suprised i made it through.
i say go for it, just go for it on a boat that is at least 26 feet. i spend my summers on a 30ft and love it. have taken a year off and gone for a ride 3 times, and loved that too. the dingy problem is only a problem if you make it one, (most places have dingy docks, showers,and vessel services around them) and if you go to good spots, you only have to lock your dingy with a bike lock.
the car may be a problem, (it was for me, so i got a moped) you can take it on the dingy, put it on the stern when you sail, and it gets through traffic way better. just remember the bike lock idea, (had my vespa "borrowed" by a guy that was on the hook too, really pissed me off.)
as for the anti-social thing, i have never had a problem making friends, only a problem keeping in touch with them. most marinas have friendly people all over them, but as with anywhere, there are ********, and sometimes they're the ones who can decide if you have to go. with that in mind, use bribes, (i've found that lobsters and scallops work awesome.) just make sure you give them out before someone says something, and give them out often.
now what ever you do, make sure you hire a pump out boat at least once a week. (even if you don't use your head) make sure its at a time that the people around you see it. (it goes a long way if you plan to stay for a while) and if you see trash on the beach, (or some lazy person left a bunch of crap on a picnic table) pick it up. nobody likes a slob.
don't get stumbling drunk, nobody will put up with that for long. then you can deal with the cops, and who wants to see them?
so in a nutshell, be a good person and good things will happen.

Ben, not all disagreements are "bickerfests." Sometimes they're just people with differing experiences and differing points. I can only speak for myself, but I've learned a helluva lot here. I'm not always going to agree with every single people here, but aren't sailors an independent bunch? The ones I know are, self-resilient, trust their own judgment, etc., like the solutions they've figured out better than other people's suggestions sometimes, but mostly we listen to each other.

There's a lot of terrific people here. Don't judge too quickly.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

'ceptin' that's simply NOT the case here, where the OP said he wants to try this out.

Also, he has a job, so I don't think he can go cruising around *too* widely depending on the season, wind direction, etc.

[endoftheroad]

This is a short video of today at my anchorage.
Rainy and windy.

The "challenges of a life at anchor" today would have been to board my inflatable.
I guarantee I could have done it if I needed to help a neighboring fellow cruiser in distress. 6 gals of fuel and a 25hp motor all ready to go.

I'm shooting this vid from a Westsail 32.

Bumpy Day - YouTube

endoftheroad

[donradcliffe]

The challenges of anchoring out in The Cruz:

The anchorage area by the wharf is over half a mile from the harbor which is run by a group of 4th Reich wannabees. It is rolly in the prevailing NW summer winds and wide open to winter storms. The first autumn storm usually puts 3 or 4 anchor-outs on the beach, and they are all gone by winter. Rarely, but occasionally you will get a south swell in the summer which also puts a bunch of boats on the beach and closes out the harbor entrance. Did I mention that the current water temperature is 48F, so you will have a lot of condensation on a small boat??

You can also go anchor out by Capitola, but that is 3 miles from the harbor.

[stephengrem]

Originally Posted by endoftheroad

This is a short video of today at my anchorage.
Rainy and windy.

The "challenges of a life at anchor" today would have been to board my inflatable.
I guarantee I could have done it if I needed to help a neighboring fellow cruiser in distress. 6 gals of fuel and a 25hp motor all ready to go.

I'm shooting this vid from a Westsail 32.

endoftheroad

Well that's a big dose of reality.... But hey I would like to learn how to deal with that kind of stuff early on instead of later.

And condensation is something that totally slipped my mind. That would become a real problem when things start to mold. But there are plenty of different things to be done about that. Dehumidifiers and similar products.

The idea is really just for a summer or so. Just until I can find a halfway decent harbor somewhere in the general area. And maybe I'll just try to save enough money so I won't need to work all summer. Or get a part time job.

The more I read about this the more I want to do it. Hopefully in the next year or two I can make it work.

Are there any anchorages in northern California you guys would recommend over Santa Cruz?

[Bash]

Originally Posted by stephengrem

Now if we can just get rid of a few paddle boarders...

Seriously. ....unless they're in bikinis.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by stephengrem

Are there any anchorages in northern California you guys would recommend over Santa Cruz?

Probably not. Go south. Long Beach?

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by stephengrem

Well that's a big dose of reality.... But hey I would like to learn how to deal with that kind of stuff early on instead of later.

And condensation is something that totally slipped my mind. That would become a real problem when things start to mold. But there are plenty of different things to be done about that. Dehumidifiers and similar products.

The idea is really just for a summer or so. Just until I can find a halfway decent harbor somewhere in the general area. And maybe I'll just try to save enough money so I won't need to work all summer. Or get a part time job.

The more I read about this the more I want to do it. Hopefully in the next year or two I can make it work.

Are there any anchorages in northern California you guys would recommend over Santa Cruz?

That was an AMAZING video and I would never have guessed that it was Key West, even though I iive in Florida and saw the radar. It looked a lot like Biscayne Bay durig Debby. That's one of the things I wonder about living on the hook -- how do you get to work looking decent? I think the answer is to keep some work clothes in your car. And this isn't really quite "storm season" for Florida. This is in fact the window of time where Tampa Bay sailors say it's a good time to sail to Key West. Of course, they also say "count on being in a storm, either going or coming back ..."

On my boat, tender and not a blue water boat, early on it would be "find the best way to ride it out, probably hove to with whatever is necessary to keep the waves from hitting you abeam, which is just what my boat would want to do. Thinking about it, I think I'd put a drogue off the bow befoere trying a sea anchor. I think my toe rail could take the strain of a sea anchor, but don't use a bazooka if a pea shooter will do the job ... is my thinking off there?

What about a riding sail? Does the KY poster have one? Might it have helped? I don't think anything could have stopped the hobby horsing except a sky hook...

And think about a long dinghy ride in that weather ...

I'm thinking I should have some provisions that are sacred, only to be used under such difficult circumstances -- tuna fish, mayonnaise, boxed milk, that sort of thing ...

[Kettlewell]

Endoftheroad, what was it blowing? Impressive video.